Fitbit, the leading global wearables brand, announced advancements to the on-device Fitbit user experience for its popular smartwatches: Fitbit OS 3.0 for Fitbit Ionic, Fitbit Ionic: adidas edition and Fitbit…

Fitbit, the leading global wearables brand, announced advancements to the on-device Fitbit user experience for its popular smartwatches:

Fitbit OS 3.0 for Fitbit Ionic, Fitbit Ionic: adidas edition and Fitbit Versa smartwatches lets you see even more personal data at-a-glance, including sleep and expanded exercise view. It also adds quick logging for weight and water intake. With these, it’s easier than ever to take action based on data right from your wrist.

10 new popular brand apps across health, fitness, smart home and lifestyle brands were announced, including achu health, Couch to 5K, Genius Wrist and MySwimPro. Others like FitBark, MINDBODY and TRX are coming soon to the Fitbit App Gallery, offering more tools to help maximize your health and simplify your life.

Female Health Tracking trends will arrive in the Fitbit app in early 2019, offering a comprehensive view of menstrual cycle data including symptom trends, over time.

“We are excited to announce these software and app updates as they provide Fitbit smartwatch users with more ways to take action based on their personal data to achieve their health and fitness goals,” said Jon Oakes, Senior Vice President of Product at Fitbit.

QUICK LOGGING. With quick-logging on-device, keeping track of your weight and water intake is now easier than ever.

Take action right from your wrist with more health data and quick logging

The Fitbit OS 3.0 update delivers an expanded on-device dashboard to easily view additional and expanded stats and data, including sleep, log water intake and weight, with expanded exercise stats, heart rate and hourly activity, allowing you more ways to take control of and manage your important personal health data right from your wrist. Goal-based exercise modes have been added to Ionic, Ionic: adidas edition and Versa, so you can set a goal for calories burned, distance or time for 15+ exercises, including running, biking, swimming and more, and see real-time stats, progress and celebrations when goals are reached.

New health, fitness apps.

New health and fitness apps from popular brands

Fitbit is expanding its Fitbit App Gallery with 10 new popular brand apps to deliver enhanced health and fitness experiences and provide you with more unique ways to simplify your every day. These apps integrate with Fitbit data to offer guidance and insights to help track your progress and motivate you along your health and fitness journey.

Available in the Fitbit Featured App Gallery are four new popular brand apps and clock faces:

achu health: This clock face transfers your Fitbit data to achu’s illness prediction technology to help you evaluate potential illness, providing alerts when your body show signs of sickness before it happens.

Couch to 5K: Pulls your Fitbit data including distance and calories burned to provide you with insights and training programs for races ranging from 5K to a marathon.

“We are partnering with some of the most popular health and fitness brands to develop apps that leverage Fitbit data to offer unique experiences and deliver more valuable and personal insights to help our users to live healthier lifestyles,” said Tim Rosa, Chief Marketing Officer at Fitbit. “For example, apps like achu health pairs your Fitbit data with illness prediction technology to help you manage signs of sickness, and MySwimPro helps you improve swimming performance with personalized coaching plans based on your heart rate data during swimming workouts.”

GOALS. You can now set goals and get real-time stats during your workout for 15+ exercises including running, biking, yoga and swimming.

Additional third-party apps coming in early 2019 include:

Charity Miles: Syncs with your Fitbit activity data to raise money for 40 of the world’s top charities for every mile logged.

FitBark: Helps you and your dog get healthy together by showing your daily Fitbit stats such as activity, distance and calories burned alongside those of your canine companion.

MINDBODY: Keep your fitness and wellness top of mind with the ability to check the schedule at your favorite studios and view your upcoming MINDBODY classes from your wrist.

Advanced developer capabilities and innovative new apps

Since Fitbit launched its App Gallery in late 2017, its growing global community of more than 44,000
developers will now have access to more advanced capabilities, including a new Exercise API that makes it faster and easier to create, build and innovate more complex, high-quality apps for Fitbit smartwatch users. A new Scientific API helps developers and researchers perform advanced data processing through a more efficient collection of math, statistical and digital signal processing functions.

Fitbit Versa

Developers can now use their own algorithms when building health and fitness apps, in order to create more intricate apps in less time, and can easily record custom exercise sessions on the Fitbit platform. This allows developers to design Fitbit smartwatch apps for more complex activities like snowboarding, skiing and skateboarding, so you can keep track of more specific activities that aren’t necessarily step-based.

For example, starting today are two innovative developer-created apps leveraging the latest APIs that will appear in the Fitbit Featured App Gallery:

Alpine Snow: Take your Fitbit device on the slopes with the ability to track distance travelled, number of runs, speed, altitude, weather conditions, calories burned and heart rate in real-time, with the session available to view in the Fitbit App along with your GPS route.

All new popular brand and developer apps will be available in addition to the existing suite of 15+ Exercise Modes and more than 1,200 apps and clock faces currently accessible to Fitbit smartwatch users.

Period trends coming to Female Health Tracking

Last, Female Health Tracking, a highly engaged feature by women in the Fitbit app , will introduce menstrual cycle trends in the Fitbit app, allowing you to see your menstrual cycle data, logged symptoms and trends all in one place no matter what Fitbit device you use.

Fitbit has introduced the Fitbit Versa, its lightest smartwatch that showcases a modern design and the health and fitness features you need with more than four days of battery life….

Fitbit has introduced the Fitbit Versa, its lightest smartwatch that showcases a modern design and the health and fitness features you need with more than four days of battery life.

In the Fitbit Versa, advanced health and fitness features like 24/7 heart rate tracking, onscreen workouts, and automatic sleep stages tracking meet smart features like quick replies on Android, wallet-free payments, and on-device music – all with 4+ days battery life.

Versa will be available in the Philippines in the second quarter of 2018, the company said in a press statement.

Fitbit’s lightest smartwatch offers a comfortable design and a new dashboard that simplifies how you access your health and fitness data.

Fitbit also announces new female health tracking to help women track their menstrual cycle, view holistic health data in one place, and better understand connections to their overall health. Female health tracking will be available on-device for Fitbit Versa and Fitbit Ionic users, and to all Fitbit app users starting in May 2018.

“As the wearables category continues to grow, Fitbit Versa fills a critical need in the market by delivering a beautifully designed, full-featured smartwatch that is easy to use at a very competitive price,” said James Park, co-founder and CEO of Fitbit. “Versa brings consumers the advanced health and fitness features Fitbit is known for, along with broad compatibility across mobile platforms and 4+ days battery life to provide users with a better picture of their overall health, making it stand out from any smartwatch available today.”

Your all-day health, wellness and fitness companion

Versa launches with Fitbit OS 2.0 for the company’s smartwatches, including a new personalized dashboard that provides a more simplified, intuitive and holistic view of your health and fitness data, bringing the best of our mobile app to the wrist, including:

Take charge of your health and wellness: Use Sleep Stages and Insights to see how well you’re sleeping and set a restful sleep schedule, and Cardio Fitness Level to see how fit you are; move more throughout the day with Reminders to Move. A relative SpO2 sensor opens the potential to track important health indicators in the future, such as sleep apnea.

Fitbit is also introducing female health tracking to help women understand how their menstrual cycle connects to their overall health. According to a recent Fitbit survey, 80% of women did not know how many phases are in a menstrual cycle and more than 70% were unable to correctly identify the average length of a cycle, demonstrating a lack of awareness about women’s health. Created for all Fitbit app users who identify themselves as female ages 13 and over, the feature lets you:

Stay on top of your cycle: Easily log your menstrual cycle data, and record symptoms like headaches, acne and cramps; helps you be more informed about your health and life planning, and, as needed, can help you show your doctor specific details for more personalized care.

Know what’s ahead: See dynamic cycle predictions for where you are in your cycle and when to expect your period using Fitbit’s new proprietary cycle algorithm that gets smarter over time the more you log; see where you are in your cycle at-a-glance on your wrist.

All of your data in one place: View holistic data in one place to reveal connections between your cycle and other stats in the Fitbit app, such as activity, sleep and weight trends to better manage your activity and sleep needs during certain times of the month.

Period 101: Learn more about the menstrual cycle, ovulation, fertility and common misconceptions with educational content on the Fitbit blog through the Fitbit app.

Connect with others: Join other women through Groups in the Community tab of the Fitbit app for support around key topics like periods, birth control, trying to conceive, pregnancy, and perimenopause and menopause.

Personalized insights and guidance: In the future, as the database of female health metrics grows this data may help enable Fitbit to deliver even more insights, such as how your cycle impacts your activity, sleep, weight and nutrition, and potentially how these things can affect your cycle.

“Female health tracking will empower women with a greater understanding of their menstrual cycles in conjunction with their physical and mental health, as they start to recognize what are normal trends over time versus what could be an issue to share with their doctor,” said Dr. Katharine White, MD MPH, assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Boston University School of Medicine and Fitbit Advisor.

“The nuances of the menstrual cycle have not been as widely studied across populations as have other areas in healthcare. This exciting development by Fitbit could help potentially create one of the largest databases of menstrual health metrics in the world, providing healthcare and research professionals with an unprecedented ability to study menstrual cycles and women’s health with real world data,” White said.

FITBIT VERSA. In the Fitbit Versa, advanced health and fitness features like 24/7 heart rate tracking, onscreen workouts, and automatic sleep stages tracking meet smart features like quick replies on Android, wallet-free payments, and on-device music – all with 4+ days battery life.

Lightweight and modern design for everyday life

Our lightest, most approachable watch yet, Versa is comfortable, durable and versatile enough for all-day and night wear. It features an ultra-thin, anodized aluminum case and is slightly tapered and angled in its design to fit small or large wrists. The rounded square silhouette display features a bright, colorful touchscreen and sharp graphics up to 1,000 nits, providing the ideal format to see all of your data on your wrist.

Versa offers a variety of stylish accessories so you can change your look based on your outfit or activity:

Classic accessories: Featuring new stain-resistant materials, these sleek, swim-ready bands are available in peach, gray, black, periwinkle and white.

Stainless steel accessories: The stainless steel links and metal mesh bands give a polished look to elevate your style. Stainless steel links are available in black, silver or tapered silver; metal mesh bands are available in black or silver.

Designer collection: Fitbit and The Council of Fashion Designers of America invited select designers to submit accessory designs for Versa that showcased their vision for fashion wearables. Emerging designer PH5 was selected to create a new Versa accessory line, available exclusively at Fitbit.com later this year.

Fitbit Versa Special Edition: Offering two looks in one with exclusive woven bands inspired by athleisure trends in lavender with a rose gold aluminum case or charcoal with a graphite aluminum case, as well as a black Classic accessory band in box

Essential smart features that help you simplify your life

Versa offers a range of smart features to help you manage your day and quickly get the information you need most:

Music on your device: Listen to phone-free music anywhere using Bluetooth headphones like Fitbit Flyer, including 300+ songs from your personal music collection and now your own or curated playlists as well as Flow from Deezer.

Pay from your wrist: Leave your wallet at home and easily pay in any store where contactless payments are accepted with Fitbit Pay, supported by nearly 40 banks in 14 countries including Australia and Singapore, through American Express, Mastercard and Visa networks, with more countries and banks rolling out in 2018.

Apps and clock faces you want: Personalize your device by choosing from a wide range of apps and clock faces in the Fitbit App Gallery, including those from Fitbit, Fitbit Labs, and popular apps like Strava and Weather. The Fitbit App Gallery has more than 550 apps and clock faces available today, many of which developers are working to make available to Versa users soon.

Fitbit Labs: An R&D initiative introduced last year focused on accelerating innovation and driving behavior change, Fitbit Labs is introducing a New Parent app to help parents more easily stay on top of their baby’s schedule. By logging their infant’s feedings, diaper changes and sleep, plus their own mood, all from their wrist, new parents can better understand the connections between their sleep and mood, and, over time, help build a healthy routine for themselves and their baby.

Broad compatibility: Versa is compatible across Android, iOS and Windows devices so you can use most smartphiones.

“We are thrilled to offer Fitbit’s global smartwatch community convenient and easy access to the music they want to help them stay motivated on their fitness journey,” said Riad Hawa, Global VP of Hardware Partnerships at Deezer. “With this partnership, we’ve made it easier to have relevant and fresh music on your wrist with Flow, a personalized soundtrack, and a wide selection of playlists – all without having to bring your phone when you’re exercising.”

Versa’s new software features are part of the latest Fitbit OS update, the operating system for Fitbit smartwatches. This software update will also be available for Ionic users.

Pricing and availability

Fitbit Versa will be available in the Philippines in the second quarter 2018 for P13,890 in black with a black aluminum case, gray with a silver aluminum case, or peach with a rose gold aluminum case. Fitbit Versa Special Edition will retail for P15,590; accessories ranging from P1,899 to P5,499. Versa will be available in across leading retail stores including Digital Walker, Globe, Liberty, Runnr and Lazada.

With the introduction of Versa, Fitbit expands its smartwatch offerings, providing consumers with greater choice across its product lineup of trackers and watches, and positioning the company to capture greater share of the overall wearables category. According to IDC, the worldwide wearables market is set to nearly double by 2021, with watches driving this growth in the long term. (Press Release)

Whether as a reward for yourself for a great year or a gift to loved ones, Fitbit watches are the perfect fitness giveaway. Start your Christmas shopping by checking out…

Whether as a reward for yourself for a great year or a gift to loved ones, Fitbit watches are the perfect fitness giveaway. Start your Christmas shopping by checking out activity trackers from Fitbit, the leading global wearables brand.

With the Flex 2, Alta HR and Charge 2 trackers, your loved ones will surely get moving, stay active and achieve their fitness goals in no time. A key component of Fitbit is its gamification of meeting fitness goals with badges and a community feature to track workouts of group members and post these on a leaderboard of friends and colleagues.

Flex it out

Fitbit Flex 2

Perfect for those who like to hit the gym and head out for a swim, the Fitbit Flex 2 is Fitbit’s slimmest tracker.

The Fitbit Flex 2 (P5,490) is Fitbit’s first-ever swim-proof fitness wristband that also offers alternative accessories like bands, metal bangles and pendants (in gold, rose gold and silver), allowing you to wear this activity tracker as a stand-out accessory.

Have it Alta

Fitbit Alta HR

Fan-favorite Fitbit Alta recently got a makeover in the form of Fitbit Alta HR (8,490.00). Perfect for fashionistas who are just beginning to find their fit, the world’s slimmest wrist-based, continuous heart rate tracking device. Alta HR comes in interchangeable leather and metal accessory bands perfect for meetings, soirees or holiday functions. This stylish band is also available in special edition gunmetal and rose gold bands.

Charge up your life

For those who want to take their fitness goals to the next level, Fitbit offers the Fitbit Charge 2 (P8,490). In addition to PurePulse heart rate tracking, the Fitbit Charge 2 features connected GPS so you can track your running routes. It is equipped with a larger display for an enhanced exercise experience that include new health and fitness tools, smart notifications you need most, and interchangeable bands that easily let you go from a workout to a night out.

Fitbit Charge 2

One of the Fitbit Charge 2’s amazing features is “Relax,” offering personalized, deep-breathing sessions that calm your mind and body. No matter how busy or stressed out you are, Fitbit’s “Relax” feature will help put you at ease. The Fitbit Charge 2 also helps you better understand your fitness level and improve over time with a personalized “Cardio Fitness Score.”

This feature-packed tracker is available in special edition lavender and gunmetal.

Fitbit, the leader in the connected health and fitness market, recently introduced Fitbit Alta HR, a device that comes with new advances in sleep tracking. The fitness tracker gives you…

Fitbit, the leader in the connected health and fitness market, recently introduced Fitbit Alta HR, a device that comes with new advances in sleep tracking. The fitness tracker gives you actionable insights and guidance in the Fitbit app to make more informed decisions about your health and stay motivated to reach your wellness goals in style.

Fitbit Alta HR is the world’s slimmest wrist-based, continuous heart rate tracking device combining the benefits of PurePulse heart rate technology, automatic exercise recognition, sleep tracking, battery life of up to seven days and smart notifications in a slim, versatile design that is easily customized to fit your style.

Alta HR is already available for presale and is expected to be available in the Philippines by April to May.

Fitbit Alta HR is the world’s slimmest wrist-based, continuous heart rate tracking device combining the benefits of PurePulse heart rate technology, automatic exercise recognition, sleep tracking, battery life of up to seven days and smart notifications in a slim, versatile design that is easily customized to fit your style.

“Alta HR and these powerful new sleep features demonstrate our continued focus on evolving our innovative technology to deliver deeper, more actionable insights to help our users improve their health,” said James Park, co-founder and CEO of Fitbit.

“The miniaturization of our PurePulse heart rate technology opens up exciting opportunities for future generations of devices and new form factors. Our advances in sleep will provide millions of users around the globe accessibility to invaluable insights that previously could be obtained only through expensive lab tests,” he said.

Heart Rate and Style in a Sleek Design

Fitbit was able to bring PurePulse, the feature requested most by Fitbit Alta users, to Alta HR by developing a one-of-a-kind chip that reduced the size and number of components needed, achieving a 25% slimmer design than Fitbit Charge 2. The result is a stylish device that offers all-day, continuous heart rate tracking, making it easier for you to make more informed decisions about your health:

Better measure calorie burn all day, including during non-step based exercise like yoga and spinning, to help you stay on track toward your health and weight goals by tracking calories in versus burned.

See real-time heart zones on your wrist and exercise summaries in the Fitbit app to work out at the right intensity for your health and fitness goals.

View resting heart rate on-device and trends in the Fitbit app, and compare it to your activity to see how consistent exercise can improve your heart health over time. A decrease in resting heart rate is a key indicator of cardiovascular health; changes up or down may indicate illness or other issues.

Smart, Insightful, Automatic Sleep Tracking to Help You Sleep Better

Fitbit is also introducing two dynamic sleep tools – Sleep Stages and Sleep Insights – that provide deeper insight into your sleep quality and guidance on how to improve, building on its popular sleep features that have empowered millions of people to track their sleep since 2012. Along with diet and exercise, sleep is a key factor in overall health, but most people have very little insight into it. Good sleep plays a critical role in your health and overall wellbeing, from protecting against cardiovascular disease, diabetes and obesity, to boosting neurocognitive functions, mental health and longevity.

Sleep Stages, powered by PurePulse, uses accelerometer data and heart rate variability (the changes in time between beats), plus Fitbit’s proven algorithms to more accurately estimate how long you spend in light, deep and REM sleep stages, as well as time awake, each night:

Light Sleep (including sleep stages N1 and N2) occurs throughout the night and is important for memory, learning and letting your body recover from the day; for most people that’s 50%-60% of your night.

Deep Sleep (sleep stage N3) promotes a healthy immune system and muscle growth and repair; for most people that’s 10%-25% of your night (depending on your age).

REM Sleep is when most dreaming occurs and is important for mental recovery and memory formation; for most people that’s 20%-25% of your night. Most REM sleep comes at the end of the night, and is often the stage to be cut short when your sleep duration decreases.

Awake periods (between 10-30 times) are a normal part of your sleep cycle each night.

Everyone’s sleep cycle is different, but by better knowing your sleep quality and patterns, and realizing the impact they have on your day, you can make lifestyle changes that can help improve your sleep over time – such as diet, exercise, winding down before bed and keeping a consistent sleep schedule. For example, if you wake up feeling exhausted each morning, despite seemingly getting enough sleep, you may not be getting sufficient deep sleep.

Tracking sleep patterns could also help identify variations that can be indicative of other issues. For example, it has been shown that irregularities in sleep patterns could be a sign of a sleep condition that should be discussed with a doctor.

“Fitbit’s new sleep features use a scientific-based approach to show your sleep patterns over time, and provide you with validated, actionable guidance to help you make changes in your daily routine to achieve greater quality sleep – and in turn improve your overall health. Given the comfort and accessibility of this product, it’s one of the most valuable and useful sleep tracking solutions available to consumers outside of a sleep lab,” Dr. Siebern said.

Developed with Fitbit’s panel of sleep experts over the last two years, Sleep Stages makes information previously only accessible through a sleep lab accessible to millions of consumers, while Sleep Insights offers personalized guidance to help improve your sleep.

Stay Motivated, On Track and Connected

In addition to the advanced health and fitness tracking experience PurePulse brings to Alta HR, popular features and notifications keep you connected and motivated to reach your goals:

All day, automatic tracking of your most important stats (heart rate, steps, distance, calorie burn, active minutes) day and night, powered by battery life of up to seven days.

Reminders to Move help you stay active throughout the day, and reducing sedentary time can play a significant role in the prevention of diabetes, obesity and cardiovascular disease.

Call, text and calendar notifications keep you connected so you can focus on your day.

Connect with one of the largest social fitness networks in the world through the new Community tab in the Fitbit app to find support and inspiration on your path to better health and fitness.

“For me, a big part of staying healthy and active is understanding how the things I do every day – like hiking with my dogs, hitting a dance class and how well I sleep – impact my overall health and fitness goals,” said Julianne Hough, Fitbit Ambassador, actress and dancer. “I love that Alta HR is so stylish, I can wear it with any outfit no matter what I’m doing so I stay motivated and on track.”

Reflect Your Personal Style

Whether you’re going to a workout or a night out, the slim design and distinctive Alta HR tracker will give you the information you need while transforming to fit your look with a variety of accessories that fit Alta and Alta HR devices.

Pricing and availability

Alta HR will be available in the Philippines for P8,690.00 from April in Digital Walker, Beyond the Box, select Toby’s stores, iBOOK, iCENTER, Mobile1, Globe, Gadgets in Style, Hivemind, Lazada, Zalora, Timeline, The Inbox Store, iLiberty and Rnnr stores.

Good design, light weight, solid battery life, a great fitness tracking app and desktop dashboard and access to a community make the Fitbit Blaze a top choice for those who…

Good design, light weight, solid battery life, a great fitness tracking app and desktop dashboard and access to a community make the Fitbit Blaze a top choice for those who want to buy a tracker and smartwatch.

As a long-time user of the Sony Smartwatch 3, it’s hard to make the shift to a different platform. There are a lot of things that the Smartwatch 3 and Android Wear got right (but these are for a different blog post) that it actually took some time for me to try out the Fitbit Blaze.

But when I did open the box and try it on, I quickly discovered how the Fitbit Blaze was a great fitness tracker, one that’s even better than the Android Wear device I have been using for more than a year. For one, it’s lighter than the Smartwatch 3. It also looks stylish with a tighter strap lock than what I was used to.

UNBOXING the Fitbit Blaze. The watch is a great fitness tracker that also serves as a smartwatch.

But the biggest difference between the Smartwatch 3 that I was using and the Fitbit Blaze was the excellent dashboard that one gets with a Fitbit device. At any given time, a Fitbit user gets access to such things as the number of steps one has already taken vis-à-vis to one’s daily goal, heart rate, sleeping time, amount of water intake and one’s standing among friends in the 7-day rank on number of steps taken.

Good hardware and an excellent app for mobile and the web make the Fitbit Blaze a top choice for trackers and smartwatches.

FITBIT BLAZE. The tracker can be bought from Digital Walker and Beyond The Box stores, as well as select Toby’s outlets.

The key features of the Fitbit Blaze are:

Heart rate monitor

The Fitbit Blaze has a built-in heartrate monitor and a technology that not only allows you to keep track of your heart rate but also guides you on training zones such as Fat Burn for the moderate zone, Cardio for the high-intensity zone, and Peak for the maximum intensity zone. What’s great about this is that the monitor is built-in and you don’t have to wear a strap.

Multi-sport

The Fitbit Blaze allows you to pick from different sports like running, cardio, weights, treadmill and biking and offers real-time stats on display. In running, it offers you information on your distance, pace, heartrate and even lap data.

TRACKS SLEEP, TOO. The Fitbit Blaze automatically tracks your sleep including the times you were awake or restless.

All-day tracking

This is where the Fitbit stands out for me. Unlike when I use the Smartwatch 3, the Fitbit automatically tracks my daily activities and whether I met my hourly and daily activity goals. It also has automatic exercise recognition and knows whether you were walking or running. Android Wear approximates this capability with Google Fit but falls hundreds of steps short of what Fitbit does.

Long battery life

While Fitbit says the Blaze can last up to 5 days, I typically charge it Day 4. It still has charge but I didn’t want to risk the watch turning off in the middle of a run. This battery life is way longer than the 1 to 2 days I got with the Smartwatch 3.

Auto sleep tracking

Fitbit also automatically tracks your sleep, including when and how many times you were awake or even just restless. In Android Wear, you needed an app for this and even then, the tracking isn’t as good as with how Fitbit does it.

SETTING IT UP. The Fitbit Blaze comes with a great app as well as a useful dashboard of your fitness data.

Connected GPS

The Fitbit Blaze has connected GPS, meaning it uses the GPS of the phone that it is paired with. This is the one feature where the Smartwatch 3 and its on-board GPS dominates the Fitbit Blaze. Connected GPS means you have to take your phone with you when you run and want to use the feature. I damaged 2 phones while running and getting caught in a sudden downpour and I plan never to bring one again with me, what with our unpredictable weather.

Since I’m not undergoing a programmed training, I don’t mind it that much. I can just continue logging the steps as they are and not use the GPS feature. But when I tried running with my paired phone and using GPS, the Fitbit Blaze collected all the important running data one needs while training and presented it in such a beautiful and useful way on the dashboard.

On-screen workouts with Fitstar

The Blaze comes with the Fitstar Personal Trainer app. What it does is that it guides you to do workouts from warming up to a 7-minute session to a specific one for your abs. The guide is on the watch itself and you won’t need to use the companion phone.

WIRELESS SYNC. The Fitbit synchronizes with your phone wirelessly throughout the day for notifications and sharing of data.

Fitbit Blaze smartwatch features

The Fitbit Blaze allows you to get call, text and calendard notifications with vibrating alert. You can also accept and reject calls from the display. It also allows you to control the music playing in your connected phone.

Color touch screen/watch faces

The Fitbit Blaze comes with a color touch screen and the ability to change watch faces.

Badges, Challenges

Fitbit gamifies fitness tracking with badges and challenges. This is another key feature for the company’s products. You earn badges by hitting workout or goal milestones like making 5,000 or 10,000 or increments of 5,000 steps. You get badges for hitting milestones in flights of stairs climbed or distances made. Badges and Challenges are, for me, an important motivator for hitting fitness goals.

EXERCISE DATA. The Fitbit Blaze allows you to track important data on your run such as distance, pace and lap performance.

HEART RATE MONITOR. The Fitbit Blaze also tracks your heart rate without you having to wear a strap. The system allows you to keep track of training zones.

Community

Fitbit also allows you to compete with friends and social network contacts on hitting step goals. You can invite people to challenges and keep track of one another’s progress throughout the day or week. This makes fitness tracking fun among groups of friends and co-workers.

Fitbit app and dashboard

The Fitbit dashboard offers a user a comprehensive look into one’s fitness statistics and progress in a beautiful and visual interface. Its apps are also done well and works beautifully in wireless synchronicity with the watch.

FITBIT APP. The Blaze, as well as the other products of the company, comes with a great app for Android and iOS.

DASHBOARD, COMMUNITY. The Fitbit dashboard is a useful tool that visually presents your fitness data. It also links you up with other Fitbit users for a friendly competition on hitting your fitness goals.

Fitbit Blaze pricing, availability in Cebu

The Fitbit Blaze retails for P9,999 and is available from Digital Walker and Beyond The Box outlets as well as select Toby’s branches.

(Disclosure: The Fitbit Blaze unit we used for this review was given to us by the company’s third-party press office in the Philippines.)